Many vehicles currently carry vehicle telematics units that can wirelessly communicate over a wireless carrier system via cellular communications protocols. Generally speaking, the vehicle telematics units can be associated with a wireless carrier system so that the units can both place and receive voice/data calls over the wireless carrier system. In return for servicing the calls for the vehicle telematics unit, a vehicle owner may pay a monthly fee to the wireless carrier system. The vehicle telematics units of new vehicles are often delivered to owners ready to be used with the wireless carrier system or they can be activated with such a system soon after delivery. However, as time passes the vehicle owner may no longer want to maintain the service provided by the wireless carrier system. When this happens, the vehicle telematics unit can be prevented from placing or receiving calls to/from third parties yet retain a limited ability to communicate with the wireless carrier system or some other designated destination even though the vehicle owner no longer pays for service.
As the amount of time the vehicle telematics unit has been deactivated increases, so does the likelihood that the wireless carrier system on which the unit was previously activated no longer offers any service to the deactivated unit. That is, the wireless carrier system may remove the deactivated vehicle telematics unit from its register such that the system no longer recognizes the vehicle telematics unit on its equipment even if the unit later attempts to reengage the wireless carrier system. Or the wireless carrier system may go out of business entirely. Similarly, attempts to contact the vehicle telematics unit through the existing wireless carrier system may be unsuccessful. Thus, it may not be possible to wirelessly contact the vehicle telematics unit and reprovision the vehicle telematics unit at a later date.